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University College of North Wales, 
Bangor 



Some Aspects of Modern 
University Education 



AN ADDRESS 

DELIVERED AT THE 

Closing Ceremony of the Session 1902-3 
June 19th, 1903 



BY 



Sir RICHARD JEBB, D.C.L., LL.D., M.P., 

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE 



CAMBRIDGE 

Printed at the University Press 
1903 



University College of North Wales, 
Bangor 



Some Aspects of Modern 
University Education 



AN ADDRESS 

DELIVERED AT THE 

Closing Ceremony of the Session 1902-3 

June 19th, 1903 



BY 
Sir RICHARD JEBB, D.C.L., LL.D., M.P., 

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE 



CAMBRIDGE 

Printed at the University Press 
1903 



V 



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A 



5 



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Address given at University College, Barigor, 
on Friday, June 19. 

SOME ASPECTS OF MODERN UNIVERSITY 
EDUCATION. 



The nineteenth century will always be memorable in the 
history of English education. Our Elementary system was 
for the first time organised under the control of the State ; 
Secondary training, though not organised, was immensely im- 
proved in several kinds of schools; the education of women was 
lifted to a wholly new level ; technical education was begun 
under the auspices of the County Councils ; and, finally, a most 
remarkable development took place in the resources for teaching 
of a University type. This last change, indeed, is second in 
importance to none of those momentous changes which marked 
the Victorian age. Look back only a little more than seventy 
years, and consider what the situation was on the eve of the 
first Reform Bill. Oxford and Cambridge were then the only 
Universities south of the Tweed ; and their position was far 
from satisfactory. The range of their studies was too narrow ; 
they had not been keeping pace with the advancement of 
knowledge. Their social operation also was much too limited ; 
it was practically confined to the wealthier classes, and to the 
members of one communion. They were out of touch with the 
nation as a whole ; and the discontent with which they were 
regarded found expression in many different quarters. In the 
second half of the century, however, all this was changed. By 

1 



2 

successive reforms the quality of their teaching was improved 
and its range was greatly widened ; religious tests were 
abolished; the doors of the Universities were opened to large 
classes of the community against which they had formerly been 
closed. Oxford and Cambridge came to be in fact, and no 
longer in name only, national Universities. But meanwhile a 
rapidly growing demand for higher education had gradually 
created a series of new institutions of various kinds. The 
earliest of these sprang fi'om a sense of the fact that the 
benefits of the ancient Universities were restricted to the few. 
The metropolis was the first seat of such new foundations. 
University College, London, was established in 1828, and 
King's College in the following year. London University, as 
an Examining Board, received its first charter in 1836. The 
needs of the North of England also claimed attention. Li 
1838 a charter was granted to the University of Uui'ham. 
Owens College, Manchester, arose in 1851. The period from 
1870 to 1885 was marked by signal activity. A series of 
University Colleges then came into existence, including those 
of Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Aberystwyth, Cardiff, 
and Bangor. Two such Colleges, those of Nottingham and 
Sheffield, grew out of the University Extension movement, 
which has since produced also Colleges of a special type at 
Reading, Exeter, and Colchester. The next great step was the 
formation of the Federal Universities. The Colleges at Man- 
chester, Liverpool, and Leeds were federated in the Victoria 
Universit}^, to Avhich a charter was given in 1880. Your own 
University of Wales received its charter in 1893. Since then 
some events have occurred which are of great importance for 
the future of our University education. The University of 
Birmingham has been founded. The University of London has 
been reconstituted as a teaching body. The federal Victoria 
University is to be dissolved. Liverpool has received a charter 
for a University of its own. There will be a University of 
Manchester: and Leeds is to be the seat of another. Thus in 
England and Wales we are to have at least nine Universities. 
And it has recently been announced that there is a project for 
establishing a University of Sheffield. 



With this growing multiplication of centres for training of 
the University type, it is clear that we have entered on a new 
period in the history of our higher educatiou. New problems 
are presenting themselves, and old questions are recurring in 
new forms. The great fact which determines the character of 
the whole movement is the extraordinary development of local 
interest and energy in this direction. One of the first questions 
that occur at the present time is this:— What are the ad- 
vantages or drawbacks of a Federal University as compared 
with a City University, such as that of Birmingham ? One 
advantage of the federal system is that which it bestows on 
Colleges which might not be strong enough to stand alone as 
degree-giving bodies. By federation, by common action, each 
of them gains in breadth ; the studies of each, leading up to 
degrees conferred by the University, gain in importance and 
become animated by a larger spirit. There is a further con- 
sideration, which applies with special force to an area such as 
that of the Principality ; namely, that a University which 
represents Wales enjoys the solid support of Welsh national 
sentiment. This is a source of strength which can hardly be 
overrated. As to the drawbacks of the federal system, one of 
them is that the federal control necessarily imposes certain 
limits on the freedom of teaching in the constituent Colleges, 
especially, perhaps, on the Arts side. I am not aware that in 
Wales you have felt that much ; I believe that the University 
of Wales has been very successful in combining a uniformly 
high standard with a reasonable freedom for the Colleges in 
regard to their schemes of study. But the College at Liverpool, 
it is understood, felt somewhat trammelled by the federal system, 
and this was one of the reasons which prompted the desire for 
separation. Then in a federal University there is always the 
geographical question. In your own case it has been felt, I 
believe, as a real inconvenience that the meetings of Joint 
Boards involve long and frequent journeys, making considerable 
demand on tlie time of some Professors. That difficulty is 
inherent in the system ; I do not know whether, or how far, 
it could be mitigated by limiting the number of teachers 
affected by it. Turn now to the City University ; has it any 

1—2 



distinctive recommendation, as compared with the Federal? 
Its chief advantage is, I suppose, the concentration of local 
patriotism. A citizen of Liverpool, for instance, will be apt to 
care more for a University of that city than he would care for a 
Liverpool College in a University which included Manchester 
and Leeds. This may be one of the reasons why a University 
of Birmingham was thought more expedient than a University 
of the Midlands. The local patriotism of our great provincial 
cities has in these days a force and an intensity which can 
hardly be realised except by those who have lived in such a 
city. I know something of it from long experience at Glasgow. 
It is a force rooted in British character, in our institutions, our 
freedom, and our habits of local self-government. That each 
great city should have its own University, may or may not be 
educationally good ; but the rivalry between such cities is a 
very powerful factor in the case. If Birmingham is to have a 
University of its own, that is, for Liverpool, a further reason 
why it should have one too : and if Leeds is to have one, 
Sheffield will hardly be content that its College should be 
affiliated, in a subordinate position, to its neighbour's institu- 
tion. The situation is characteristically English. The English 
people, as a whole, has till lately cared comparatively little 
about education ; education, in all its grades, has been advanced 
mainly by voluntary agencies, or by individual enterprise ; it 
has not been, as in Germany, organised from top to bottom by 
the State. And a very good thing too, many will say. Yes, 
good in certain respects ; but it is a history which makes the 
situation very complex at a moment like the present, when the 
country is waking up to the fact that its place in world-compe- 
titions is jeopardised by its backwardness in education. The 
dissolution of the federal Victoria University, whether desirable 
or not, was inevitable from the moment that one great city 
had decided to apply for a separate charter; for, in such 
a matter, the will of a great city is practically irresistible. 
In referring to that event, it is impossible not to ask oneself 
whether it is fraught Avith any omen for the future of the 
University of Wales. I merely venture to utter aloud some 
thoughts that occur to me, as a spectator genuinely interested 



in the fortunes of this University, of which the position is 
in some respects unique. One of your three Colleges is 
seated in a great commercial town. Suppose, for the sake 
of argument merely — I have no reason whatever to believe 
that the thing is probable — suppose that this great town 
should some day decide to have a University of its own. 
Then, I presume, one of two things would happen : Bangor and 
Aberystwyth would go on in federal union ; or else Bangor 
would become the University of North Wales, and Aberystwyth 
would be left in a position analogous to that in which Leeds 
found itself when the dissolution was decreed. In view of such 
possible contingencies, one question before all others would seem 
to require an answer. Are the drawbacks to the federal system 
outweighed by the fact that the existing University stands for 
all Wales, and has the undivided support of Welsh sentiment 
behind it ? An onlooker who thinks as I do would replj' 
unhesitatingly, Yes : the advantage outweighs the drawbacks. 
To represent Wales is not merely to represent a geographical 
area and a distinct nationality: it is to represent also a well- 
marked type of national genius, characterised by certain 
intellectual bents, by certain literary aptitudes, by certain gifts 
of imagination and sympathy, specially manifested in the love 
of poetry and of music ; a type of genius which is peculiarly 
susceptible to the influence of humane studies. A University 
which is the one academic expression of such a national genius 
holds a position of unique interest and of peculiar strength. 
It would be a great pity to break it up into two or three 
Universities, no one of which could have the same prestige. If 
there were but two Universities, one for North Wales and the 
other for South, the national sentiment would be divided, the 
strength which it gives would be impaired, and the unavoidable 
competition, however generous, might possibly be prejudicial to 
the interests of Welsh education at large. Perhaps I ought to 
apologise for this purely hypothetical reference to a situation 
which may never occur : but the prevailing current of events in 
England forcibly presses such thoughts on the mind ; and a 
loyal well-wisher of the University may, I hope, be excused for 
saying these few words on the subject. 



6 

I revert to the new Universities in the great English towns, 
such as Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham. It is clear 
that they are destined to be Universities of what is called the 
modern type, — that is, predominantly scientific, and devoting 
special attention to the needs of practical life, professional, 
industrial, and commercial. But I may say at once that, in my 
opinion, there is no fear that these new modern Universities 
Avill not aim at a high standard of libei'al education, whatever 
the subjects of it may be. Those who dcjubt this hardly realise 
(I believe) how much English thought at the great centres of 
popidation has been moving in the last few 3'ears. Only a few 
years ago, no doubt, there was a decided prejudice among many 
men of business and employers of labour against a University 
training, as they understood it. But the cruder form of utilita- 
rianism in this matter has latel}' been dying out, — thanks 
largely to certain object-lessons furnished by Germany. One 
of the best-known of these, which 1 merely mention in passing, 
is the case of the aniline dyes. These colours were first 
discovered in England, and produced from English coal-tar. 
British dj^ers are still the largest consumers ; but the processes 
for producing the colours have been so developed in the labora- 
tories of Berlin that the industry has passed almost wholly 
from England to Germany. There are other like cases. Not 
long ago, at a meeting in London, I heard a speech by one 
of the highest authorities on technical education, Professor 
Ewing, who while holding the Chair of Applied Mechanics at 
Cambridge has so greatly developed the work of the Engineer- 
ing Laboratory there, and who has lately been appointed 
Director of Naval Education. He urged that, in the interests 
of the technical industries themselves, the great need was for 
a training which should be more than technical, — which should 
be really scientific, giving a grasp of principles, educating the 
mind, stimulating the imagination, giving men some power of 
original initiative, and drawing out their inventive faculties. 
The leading men in the great cities, the merchants and the 
captains of industry, are probably becoming more and more 
alive to the fact that a mind which has been disciplined by a 
liberal training is more efficient for practical affairs and techni- 



cal pursuits. We may expect to find such men supporting the 
effort to maintain a high standard in the new local Universities. 
To do so is indeed the only way to secure an adequate return 
for the very large sums which will be spent on equipment. 
The Council of Birmingham University proposes to spend a 
quarter of a million on buildings for certain technical branches 
of study, chiefly Engineering, Mining, and Metallurgy ; and the 
fittings will cost large additional sums. That is a special 
development on a scale with which the older Universities 
cannot compete ; and those who provide these funds will doubt- 
less take care that the scientific training is the best that can be 
given. But in all our Universities, old and new, there is now a 
disposition to enlarge the range of study by including subjects 
which have some definite bearing on practical life, if, and so far 
as, they can be made instruments of a really liberal training. 
I may take two examples from the English University which I 
know best. At Cambridge it has just been decided to establish 
a school of honours in Economics. Before this was done, it was 
carefully discussed whether the subject was, or was not, large 
enough and educative enough to have such a school all to 
itself. I will venture to read part of the answer to that ques- 
tion given by one of the foremost advocates of the proposal. 
" Economics," said Professor Foxwell, " is intimately related to 
Ethics, Politics, Law, Histor}-, and even to Philosophy.... Eco- 
nomics, when adequately treated, must include a reference to 
almost all the aspects of the citizen's life.... With this width of 
range, too, it combines more than the usual variety of mental 
disciplines. Modern economic analysis, which has to deal with 
very complicated relations of cause and effect, requires a con- 
siderable grasp of exact methods.... The observation, the judg- 
ment, the imagination, and the sympathies are all strengthened 
and trained by the various forms of economic inquiry; and 
from the educational point of view, at least, the study cannot 
fairly be called narrow." There, then, is a subject well-suited 
for study at the great centres of commerce and industry. I 
will take one other example from a different field. Honours at 
Cambridge will henceforth be obtainable by three years' study 
of the Chinese language, coupled with some knowledge of the 



general history of the Far East. That, again, is an instance in 
which a legitimate subject of the highest study has also a 
practical bearing, in view of the international situation with 
regard to the trade of China. A thorough study of the Modern 
Languages of Europe is another subject which ought to flourish 
in the new City Universities. We ma}- well augur for them a 
prosperous and most useful career. There are, however, two 
dangers to which it seems possible that they may be exposed. 
One is this : that, where the course for a Universit}' degree 
combines some branches of science with certain technical 
studies, the pressure of local demands may be exerted in favour 
of laying the chief stress on the technical attainments, and 
relaxing the requirements in regard to science. But it is 
reasonable to suppose that if in such a case the University 
authorities stand firm, they will be supported by the best local 
opinion. The Birmingham school of brewing seems to be a 
good example of the manner in which an academic course of 
this composite nature, partly scientific and partly technical, can 
be planned. The student is to spend two years on Physics, 
Chemistry, Biology and kindred subjects before he goes on to 
his two years of technical work in the brewing department. 
He is to study the testing of material, and all the processes 
involved, from a strictly scientific point of view. It is not 
likely that, in such a school, the scientific training, which is its 
very essence, would ever be unduly subordinated to the tech- 
nical. There may be other instances in which such a danger 
would be greater: but, if so, we may hope that it will be 
avoided. The other danger of which I was thinking is that the 
scientific side of education in the new City Universities may 
sometimes too decidedly overpower the literary side. The 
experience of University Extension has shown that it is not 
always easy to preserve a just balance. The cause of this is 
not so much any want of literary interest among the abler 
students, but rather the pressure of time and practical needs. 
All the newer Universities have, or will have, first-rate teachers 
of literary subjects. There will be no lack of zeal, as a rule, 
among the students, — of that we may be sure ; but it is to be 
feared that the main current of things will be rather adverse. 



9 

Yet it is of vital moment for all our higher education that the 
literary studies should hold their own. 

Hitherto I have been referring to the Universities in cities 
of the first rank, such as Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. 
But an essentially different question arises when we come to 
towns which, though very large, — with populations of 200,000 
or more, — -are not in the same class with those just mentioned. 
If things go on as they are going at present, more than one 
such town will soon insist on having a University of its own. 
It will be a town which has a University College, strong, prob- 
ably, in certain scientific and technical subjects, but weak, 
possibly, in some other subjects which nevertheless are indis- 
pensable for a University. The local wealth may be relied upon 
to support the highest study of an}- subjects which bear on the 
local industries, but will be comparatively apathetic towards 
others which the local man regards as ornamental. What is 
the State to do in such a case ? Is it to grant the charter for 
a University, and hope for the best ? Or is it to refuse, at the 
risk of damping local generosity towards studies which are 
valuable in themselves ? It is a case of this nature which 
justifies some real anxiety as to the new tendency towards 
multiplying Universities. Now there is at least one con- 
sideration which may, I think, be suggested as helping to 
indicate a line between the cases in which a charter should, 
and should not, be granted. It would be generally allowed 
that a Faculty of Arts is one essential element of a University. 
Would it not be fair and wise to say that, before a charter 
is given for a new University, evidence should be forthcoming 
to show that such a University could provide a reasonably 
strong Faculty of Arts, in addition to its provision for the 
teaching of scientific and technical subjects ? If this condition 
were not satisfied, the new degree-giving institution would be 
in fact only a College of Science, or a Technical College, and 
not in any proper sense a University. In such cases, the true 
solution would be found, I believe, by taking a hint from 
Germany. In Germany, as we know, the results of the highest 
education are systematically brought to bear on all the greater 
industries of the country. But this highest education is not 



10 

given only in completely equipped Universities, which confer 
degrees. It is largely given in the institutions known as 
Technical High Schools, to which we have nothing properly 
corresponding. In these Technical High Schools teaching of a 
University type is given by Professors of University rank in 
such subjects as Architecture, various branches of Engineering, 
Chemistry, and General Technical Science. There are now, 
I think, some ten or eleven of these institutions in Germany. 
At the great Technical High School of Berlin every new inven- 
tion of an}^ importance is promptly made the subject of practical 
study. There is more than one, perhaps, of our large towns of 
the second rank which would be an admirable seat for a 
Technical High School of this elevated order ; whereas the 
same town, if it insisted on having a University, might find it 
an arduous and uncongenial task to equip a Faculty of Arts. 
The multiplication of Universities need not, in itself, cause 
uneasiness, provided that each new University is thoroughly 
well equipped, is a true University, and is really needed for the 
service of an adequately large population. If these conditions 
are fulfilled, there is an evident gain in additions to the number 
of centres from which the highest education is vigorously and 
efficiently propagated. The real disaster would be if we came 
to have one or more distinctly weak Universities, — institutions 
which could perform only some small part or parts of the func- 
tion which that name implies. The mischief would be that 
such a body, having the power to give degrees, would tend to 
depreciate the value of that guarantee. This would be one of 
the gravest educational evils that could befall the country ; it 
is one from which we have hitherto been exempt. 

Will you permit me now to say a very few words on another 
matter which is suggested by the new developments, — namely 
the influence of students upon each other, considered as an 
element in University education ? In the case of Oxford and 
Cambridge, this is a distinctive feature, — perhaps one might 
almost say, the capital distinction. Residence for three or four 
years amidst the influences of the University and the Colleges 
leaves an impress on the mind and character which is never 
effaced. There are many men who, in looking back, would 



11 

say that no other part of their education had gone deeper 
than this ; and they could say so without any disparagement 
of their debt to wise guides and eminent teachers, without 
insensibility to the formative power of their Alma Mater, 
without ingratitude for the various lessons which she had 
inculcated. Of course, the value of these youthful associa- 
tions must depend in some measure on a man's choice of 
companions and on the qualities of the set in which he lives 
at the University. But to those who are fortunate in such 
respects the benefits are altogether inestimable: they cannot 
be analysed or measured. In a retrospect of those days, many 
a man will reflect with thankfulness on all else that was done 
for him there, but the inmost places of his memory, its sedes 
secretae piorum, will be peopled by recollections of hours passed 
in that intimate society of contemporaries, in walks and talks 
lit up by an interchange of thought and feeling, by confidences, 
b}' discussions, by the avowal of dawning aspirations, by the 
asking and giving of counsel such as are possible only in a 
concurrence of five conditions which can never meet again, — 
namely, youth, — intellectual interest in its first freshness, — 
close ties of friendship, — leisure, — and such a genius loci as 
haunts those ancient homes of study and of peace. Everyone 
who appreciates the immense value of this element at the 
older Universities must be anxious for its presence in the 
newer seats of learning. You have that element, I doubt 
not, at Bangor. Your College shares with at least one of its 
sisters the twofold advantage of seclusion from turmoil and 
of surroundings at once beautiful and invigorating. All this 
is propitious to the social side of academic life. In the new 
Universities of the great cities the intercourse of students will 
be attended by greater difficulties, because many or most of 
them wall have less leisure, and their residences will be spread 
over a wide area. Clubs, similar to the Unions at Oxford 
and Cambridge, will doubtless be created where they do not 
already exist. The value of such students' clubs in great 
cities consists very much in the increase of opportunities for 
friendship. We may be sure that the administrators of the 



12 

new Universities will further such objects, and will be fully 
alive to their educational significance. 

The new local authorities for education will have to see 
that, so far as possible, the several grades of training shall 
be continuous, and that, for promising pupils, there shall be 
access from the lower to the higher. It was the good fortune 
of Wales that her system of Secondary schools had been organ- 
ised, under the Intermediate Education Act of 1889, before 
her University entered upon its active career. That was an 
initial advantage for the University. In England the present 
situation is somewhat different. Secondary education has not 
yet been fully organised ; to effect that is the duty of the new 
authorities : and at the same time new seats of University 
education are coming into existence, with which the Secondary 
schools of each area, or many of them, will have to be brought 
into touch by the action of those same local authorities. Thus 
the work which lies before the Education Committees, espe- 
cially in the great cities, is very large and complex. At such 
a time it is well to know as clearly as may be what we 
understand by " University Education." Does it mean merely 
the highest grade of teaching, — higher, that is, than such as is 
given by the most advanced Secondary schools of the country ? 
Or does the phrase connote certain qualities of the education, 
over and above the fact that it is of the highest grade ? The 
word Univer situs, as you are aware, was a general term for 
a corporation or guild : then it was specially applied to a body 
of students, voluntarily associated in the pursuit of knowledge, 
who, by becoming a corporation, acquired certain immunities 
and privileges which, in medieval times, were advantageous or 
necessary for their security. Such a TJniversitas of students has 
always had two features ; first, that several different branches 
of higher study have been represented in it ; secondly, that 
the members have received oral instruction from appointed 
teachers. From these two features the distinctive character 
of University education has been developed. It matters not 
where a University is seated, or in what subjects its special 
strength may reside ; if it is adequately equipped and organ- 



13 

ised, — if it is doing the proper work of a University, — it will 
tend to produce certain effects : I say, " will tend," because, like 
other human institutions, Universities have their proportion of 
failures. What are those effects ? Well, it is not difficult to 
indicate some, at least, of them. University teaching aims at 
a general discipline of the mind, besides giving a grasp of at 
least one special branch of knowledge. Hence it tends to 
instil an intelligent respect for all studies ; it helps students 
of science, for instance, and students of letters to under- 
stand each others' aims. The spirit of University teaching 
is tolerant and sympathetic : the specialist acquires some sense 
of the manifold relations in which his own subject stands to 
others ; he is led to perceive the largeness of knowledge and of 
life. Again, the University is equalising: external advantages 
confer no privilege : the absence of them is no reproach. It 
is also chastening ; for it exacts from the student that he 
shall think out things for himself: the true teacher is no 
" crammer ; " he gives materials, opportunities, and impulse. 
This impulse is given, not as a book may give it, but by 
personal contact, by the living voice, through which facts and 
thoughts are presented with a new force. The best University 
teaching is not in bondage to the letter, but is spiritual and 
suggestive : it tends to nourish and sustain ideals. Let the 
dwellers and workers in great cities, especially, remember this : 
in all studies the University seeks to impart some glimpse of 
the ideal : and, as has well been said, '' the vision of the ideal 
guards monotony of work from becoming monotony of life." 
Mr Gladstone expressed this truth in another way when, in 
a striking address at Oxford, he described the University as 
seeking " to secure that the man shall ever be greater than 
his work, and never bounded by it, but that his eye shall boldly 
run (in the language of Wordsworth) 

'Along the line of limitless desires.'" 

If these are some of the things which a University seeks to 
do, then it may be said that there never was a time when 
true University education was more needful than it is in our 
day and in our country. High specialisation in every field of 



14 

knowledge and of work tends to limit the horizon of thorough 
study : on the other hand, the hurry of the age, the crowd 
of subjects brought under notice by the press, the social 
demand for acquaintance with the topics of the hour, en- 
courage reading of a miscellaneous and very superficial kind. 
Both these tendencies are adverse to breadth and sobriety of 
judgment. Then it is a trait of the time to measure success 
by material standards, and to brush aside, as weak and un- 
businesslike, any suspicion that an engrossing pursuit of such 
success may involve the loss of things better than the prize. 
So far as the true spirit of University education can make itself 
felt, it is a corrective of such tendencies. 

The insistent demand, from large sections of the public, for 
immediate utility in our highest education can be met, more 
or less, by many subjects which have now been brought within 
tiie academic purview. There are, however, other subjects of 
which the utility is not in the same sense direct, but consists 
in their value as a discipline, intellectual and moral. Among 
these are the works of the ancient Greek genius, with all their 
claims on the student of thought, of political society, of litera- 
ture, and of art ; the Roman evolution of institutions and of 
law ; the studies of modern history and philoso})hy. These 
can impart humanity and breadth, train the moral judgment, 
sharpen the critical faculty, refine the appreciation of literary 
form, educate a sense of measure, enrich the imagination, 023en 
that perspective of knowledge without which there is apt to 
be a narrowing of the mental vision, render all life more sug- 
gestive and more significant. No University is complete, no 
University fulfils the true idea of such an institution, which 
does not keep an honoured place for such studies as these. 
When it is said that there is no time for them now-a-days, 
the question arises, — what, even from a strictly practical point 
of view, is the best educational investment of time ? As to 
the study of Greek, which figurefs so much in the foreground 
of the controversy, one remark may be made in passing. The 
experience of women who have been distinguished in that 
subject goes far to show that the study of Greek might be 
begun at a somewhat later age than has been usual in schools, 



15 

without risk of inferior results. And one other thing may be 
said, which applies to the school-study of the classics generally. 
Every effort should be made to awaken the pupil's literary 
interest from the outset, even at the cost of postponing the 
closer study of grammar. Many young people would quickly 
feel the charm and stimulating freshness of the great litera- 
ture, who now arc apt to lose heart in the vestibule of accidence 
and syntax. 

But whatever may be done in this or other particulars, we 
must hope that nothing will be allowed to lower or to obscure 
in this country the true ideal of a University training. Let 
every duo regard be paid to the rc(|uirements of active life 
at the present day. But let it also be remembered that there 
is a national need even more urgent than the preparation of 
special aptitudes. It is the need for a wider diffusion of 
such a liberal education as shall train the intelligence, give 
elasticity to the faculties of the mind, humanise the character, 
and form, not merely an expert, but an efficient man. 



Cambridge : Printed at the University Press. 



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